NGATA FIGURE 5, DRC

All sculpture made among the Ngata is related to their elaborate funerary
rituals. Best known are the wooden anthropomorphic polychromed coffins,
which exist in both male and female forms. Reports about their use conflict,
but what is certain is that they were carved in secrecy at a sacred clearing
in the forest called Efomba by a ritual specialist woodcarver, bobongo, and the coffin is called bonganga-nganga. These anthropomorphic
figures were put on the tombs of important people, in a small house built
solely for that purpose.